Origin and development of poetry

Poetry, Aristotle argues, has its roots in two deep human instincts. The first is the instinct for imitation: we are the most imitative of all animals, and we learn primarily through imitation from childhood. We delight in seeing likenesses even of objects that are painful in life — because in the representation we are also learning, understanding what the thing means. This cognitive pleasure in recognition is the basis of the pleasure we take in art.

The second instinct is for harmony and rhythm. Beginning from these two natural capacities, humans gradually developed poetry. Those of graver temperament imitated noble actions and made hymns and panegyrics; those of lighter temperament imitated meaner actions and made lampoons and invective. Homer is preeminent in both directions — he wrote the Iliad and Odyssey as models of elevated imitation, and also the Margites, a comic work that stands to comedy as the Iliad stands to tragedy. Homer first combined dramatic form with excellence; in this sense tragedy and comedy both descend from Homer.

Tragedy grew from the leaders of the dithyramb; comedy from the leaders of the phallic songs. The key technical innovations are named: Aeschylus first introduced a second actor, diminished the role of the Chorus, and made dialogue the primary vehicle. Sophocles raised the number of actors to three and added scene-painting. Through these stages, each form found its natural dimensions and rested: comedy settled on the Dorian iambic; tragedy on iambic trimeter. Whether tragedy has yet perfected its proper types is a question Aristotle leaves open.